I am sitting here having my morning coffee with Warren. Well, he is eating Cheerios and drinking milk. I think I’ll wait a few years to start him on coffee yet. I would say that I have reached a major milestone for myself. No, I have not lost more weight (more on that later). I have managed to keep the house picked up and clean for an entire week. Anyone who knows me knows how rare this is. I am usually the one to just let it go. I typically don’t have the energy and ambition to keep it up. I decided that since we spent all last Saturday cleaning that I’d do what I could to keep the house clean. It is so much more relaxing to go to bed and wake up to a clean house. I no longer sit and look around thinking “I really need to do something about this mess but I don’t know where to even start.” I also have it at a point where anyone can drop in at any time and I’m not making excuses for how the house looks or feeling embarrassed by it. I am truly enjoying it. It does take a lot of effort during the day and after the kids are in bed to tidy up again, but it doesn’t take very long. Laura is even pretty good about helping me pick up the books and toys. Yesterday morning I was able to get the kitchen cleaned again which included sweeping and mopping the floor. The living room managed to get vacuumed 4 times between last Saturday and yesterday. I think this is a record for me. I don’t worry about Warren putting things in his mouth at all now. I also am trying to get into the habit of sweeping the kitchen floor more often since someone tends to throw his food on the floor.
On the weightloss front, I feel like I’ve stalled out. I have hit a place and I haven’t lost any weight for close to a week. I knew that I’d hit a plateau at some point, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. I may have to go back and really look at what I need to be doing for phase 1 of the Atkins diet. I think I may have missed some stuff. The website says that you only have to do phase 1 for 2 weeks, but if you have more than 20 more pounds to lose you may want to stay on it longer. I definitely have more than 20 pounds to lose yet. I am thinking I’ll stay on it a bit longer yet. Like I said, I need to go back and really look at how it should be done.
Today Laura sings in church for the first time ever. I am taking the video camera so grandparents are able to see it. This afternoon we need to carve pumpkins yet. We ran out of time yesterday. Laura is going to be a princess, and Warren is a monkey. I’ll try to get some good pictures today of them in their costumes. We are just going to go to Helen’s subdivision and trick-or-treat over there. That way it is easy to leave when the kids have had enough (or Mom and Dad have had enough too).
Well, Warren is finished eating. I hear Laura awake in her room. Time to get a start on the day!